United States Armed Forces Philippines

Across the fetid canal that separates the U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay from this famed liberty town, a broken one-room shanty with no electricity and eight occupants is a stark vision of America's mixed legacy in the Philippines. Roxanne and Melanie Hill, both former bar girls, are Amerasians, named for their American grandfather, a U.S. serviceman. The two sisters have different fathers, both U.S. servicemen. Roxanne has three children, each by different American servicemen.

An unprecedented lawsuit filed Thursday says the U.S. Navy should pay medical and education expenses for thousands of impoverished Amerasian children fathered and abandoned by U.S. servicemen in the Philippines. The class-action suit charges that the children are owed the financial support because they are the product of a Navy policy that fostered and encouraged a prostitution industry for sailors stationed or on leave in the island nation.

Ever since three Americans were ambushed and killed outside Clark Air Base east of here, the gates to the giant U.S. naval base at Subic Bay had been closed, and the nearby town of Olongapo quickly began to die. Bar girls were pawning their jewelry and television sets. Bar owners thought seriously about selling out and moving on. In just one week's time, local officials said, more than $1 million dollars in business had been lost.

Across the fetid canal that separates the U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay from this famed liberty town, a broken one-room shanty with no electricity and eight occupants is a stark vision of America's mixed legacy in the Philippines. Roxanne and Melanie Hill, both former bar girls, are Amerasians, named for their American grandfather, a U.S. serviceman. The two sisters have different fathers, both U.S. servicemen. Roxanne has three children, each by different American servicemen.

An unprecedented lawsuit filed Thursday says the U.S. Navy should pay medical and education expenses for thousands of impoverished Amerasian children fathered and abandoned by U.S. servicemen in the Philippines. The class-action suit charges that the children are owed the financial support because they are the product of a Navy policy that fostered and encouraged a prostitution industry for sailors stationed or on leave in the island nation.

The 18-year-old bar girl said she wanted to kill herself, so Richard Gordon, the mayor of this city outside the U.S. naval base, produced his 9-millimeter automatic, placed it in front of her and said, "OK, go ahead." The girl, one of 26 AIDS victims in Olongapo, studied the gun for a moment and then broke down. She and the mayor ended the session in a tearful embrace. But Gordon knew he had not gotten through to her. That was 30 days ago. Finally, on Tuesday morning, Gordon reached her.

About 15,000 American service personnel, dependents and civilians were ordered early today to evacuate Clark Air Base, one of the largest U.S. bases overseas, after a Philippines volcano dormant for six centuries began exploding with searing gases, thick ash and deadly debris. Lt. Col. Ron Rand, a spokesman at Clark, announced at 5 a.m.

As bugles blared retreat and a farewell honor guard stood at attention, the American flag was slowly lowered for the last time here Tuesday as the United States formally turned over its oldest and once-largest overseas base to the Philippines. Within an hour of the solemn ceremony, dozens of looters were reported climbing over fences toward a base housing complex and ripping out major electric cables.

The United States is preparing to withdraw 10% to 12% of its military forces from South Korea, Japan and the Philippines over the next three years, according to a classified Pacific strategy plan being prepared by the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney will present the plan to South Korean defense officials today as he begins 10 days of high-level meetings with leaders of the East Asian allies.

A U.S. Air Force sergeant was shot and killed Monday night by gunmen in a residential subdivision near Clark Air Base north of Manila, American and Philippine authorities said today. The victim, who was identified by local authorities as Sgt. Richard Blackmer, 34, apparently was walking his two German shepherds through the Mountain View subdivision about a mile from the U.S. base's main gate about 9:30 p.m. when gunmen in a passing car opened fire with automatic weapons, local police said.

The United States lowered the American flag over its Subic Bay Naval Base for the last time Wednesday and formally handed over the giant complex to the Philippines. A steady drizzle drenched about 150 diplomats and military officials as a U.S. Navy band rang down the curtain on nearly a century of U.S. military presence at the base. "This is in some way a sad day," U.S. Ambassador Richard Solomon told the ceremony at the base's Tappan Park. ". . .

The last American military dependents left the Subic Bay Naval Base on Wednesday, marking a major step in the phaseout of nearly a century of U.S. military presence in this former colony. The Navy said 232 wives and children of sailors took a chartered flight to Guam. With their departure, only about 1,400 U.S. sailors remain at what had been the largest U.S. naval base in Asia.

U.S. and Philippine officials will consider arranging limited future access for American military forces in the Philippines after the last U.S. bases here are closed down, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Saturday. Emerging from a 30-minute meeting with newly elected Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos, Baker told reporters that military access for the United States will be discussed in November at a meeting of the Mutual Defense Board.

As bugles blared retreat and a farewell honor guard stood at attention, the American flag was slowly lowered for the last time here Tuesday as the United States formally turned over its oldest and once-largest overseas base to the Philippines. Within an hour of the solemn ceremony, dozens of looters were reported climbing over fences toward a base housing complex and ripping out major electric cables.

In a compromise move, Philippine President Corazon Aquino announced Wednesday that her government will give the United States three years, rent free, to withdraw military forces from Subic Bay, America's largest naval base in Asia. U.S. Embassy officials here were guarded in response, saying the offer--far less time than they had hoped--will be studied in Washington. A 1994 pullout would end nearly a century-old American military presence here.

Communist rebels announced Saturday that they are ending their cease-fire because President Corazon Aquino is campaigning to keep U.S. forces in the Philippines. The Philippine Senate has rejected a new U.S. base agreement, but Aquino said she wants to hold a referendum so voters can decide the issue. A statement by the rebel National Democratic Front said the cease-fire would expire at midnight today and that the New People's Army would be free to attack "traitorous enemy forces."

The Bush Administration is ready to begin phasing out U.S. military bases in the Philippines, acknowledging for the first time that the end of the Cold War has lessened the need for the facilities, sources said Thursday. With negotiations on the bases scheduled to begin Tuesday in Manila, U.S. negotiators will seek a phase-out period that could last up to 10 years.

The United States will go to the negotiating table here today ready to propose a sharp reduction, but not an end, to the U.S. military presence in the Philippines over the next 10 to 12 years, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Specifically, sources said, the Pentagon, wants to keep as many as 5,000 troops, about a third of the present number, and retain access well into the next century for visiting U.S. troops, ships and planes to what are now American-run military installations.

Philippine President Corazon Aquino has assured the United States that U.S. forces will be permitted to remain at the Subic Bay Naval Base for at least another year, senior Bush Administration officials said Monday. Because of the vote by the Philippines Senate to reject a new military base treaty with the United States, however, a joint committee of U.S.

Family members of American sailors who left the Philippines at the height of Mt. Pinatubo's eruptions will begin returning to Subic Bay Naval Base late this month, a Navy spokesman said Thursday. Lt. Cmdr. Albert Twyman said Navy family members will begin arriving Aug. 26 at Subic, about 50 miles west of Manila. About 3,500 are expected back by mid-September. More than 17,000 military personnel and dependents from Subic and the U.S.